SVEN-HANSEN.DK - Mit liv - Mitt liv - My life

ENGLISH 9

April 1988

I need a little vacation, so I have booked 6 weeks, of which I will stay three on Gran Canaria in Puerto Rico. This is total relaxation, where I am often with my friend Birger Vallys, who owns "La Bodega Copenhagen" in the Shopping Center in the city. Often we are at Birger's house, or maybe shopping in Las Palmas, where he picks up goods for the restaurant. It's a really nice get-together and a lot of time yesterday, either at Birger's home privately in Arguineguin, or in a bar somewhere in the area where you can get really smart in a short time.

At home in Hjortekær, a lot of time is spent with my mother and father, just as there is often a party with friends and acquaintances at Vejlesø in Holte. There really needs to be partying through now that I'm home from Thule and have a lot of stories up my sleeve. I do not have a Harley right now, or vehicles at all, because I sold everything before I traveled to Australia in 87. So I get around in either a rental car or by bus and train when there is beer or other festivity on the program, so it will be a fun holiday with friends before the plane goes north again to the base, where spring has started to catch up and the port area dries up where the summer season comes over us.

End of June 88.

Now we are at the end of June and the harbor is opened for freight, so I leave Hangar 6 to work at the harbor as a mechanic on the tugs (Tugboats) of which we have 2. Likewise, there is a lot to be done to keep all our Forklifts rolling and I often lend a hand in the cargo when there is a ship in port.

There are new people with every charter machine, so new colleagues and friends are coming all the time. A list will appear before each charter machine, with the names of those with the next flight. And in the June charter, I see my cousin Bent on the list. Bent has been up here many times before and a total of about 19 years at the base. It has been as a painter and it is the same job again. Now it's gonna be fun, because Cousin Bent doesn't know I'm here now, so I want to take gas on him. I find him on the first day outside the REC Center and say hello, and enjoy Bent's confusion because he knows me well, but have no idea who I am and I keep him on the torture bench for half an hour before I say "Hello cousin ". It turned into a great reunion night at the club and see each other often after that.

A time with a lot to do at work. But fortunately there is also time for some "expeditions" in the nature around the base. I borrow from time to time, a US-Airforce car from the "Police", where I have made a good friend. Only loan conditions are that they know where I am going and when I will return, as pure security, so they can start a search if I do not return at the agreed time. All right, since it's a bit far from everything out there in the Arctic desert, with a bit far to the phone. I get the car and like to drive out without special targets on the small roads that lead into nothingness and on yet. I have often driven over North Mountain to Wolstenholme Fjord by the 4 glaciers, Salisbury, Champerlin, Knud Rasmussen and Harald Moltke Glaciers, which is a fantastic nature, where you can sit and almost lose time and place in wonder at nature's fantastic scenery.

Several of the trips go to Dundas, the small abandoned town located a few kilometers north of the base, on the other side of the small fjord, North Star Bay, by the harbor. Dundas was originally called Uummaannaq, but was renamed Dundas by Knud Rasmussen.

The city of Dunda is located in the old Thule area in Qaanaaq municipality, where Knud Rasmussen and Peter Lorenz Alfred Freuchen in 1909 established the Thule Trading Station. The original Thule people lived in grass huts, many of which are found today (2009), albeit a little "worn", but they are there.

On my trips, I often climbed the 222-meter-high Dundasfjeld next to the town of Dundas. It is quite steep and you fight your way up through rolling rocks and shards until the last 10 meters, where it goes straight up a strong rope that was set up many years ago. Thank you! And all worth the hassle, because here is a breathtaking view all around, just towards the base with the inland ice on the horizon and over the fjord with the glaciers or across the Arctic Sea towards Saunders Island and the "witch's hat" in the distance. I am often up here for hours and just sit and remove all thoughts from my head and let the greatness overwhelm me. Thinking that all people just once in a lifetime should see something like this and experience the silence that is almost deafening.

Likewise, we got a flight with sports planes over the ice sheet towards the town of Qaanaaq (New Thule) about 120 kilometers north of the base. A colleague and I went down to the flight club at the base to hear about the possibility of renting the club's plane with a pilot for a Sunday excursion. No problem, because he was missing a little flight time, so we only paid for the fuel.

Fine! We agreed to take off the next day in a Cessna heading towards Qaanaaq, which we reached after 45 minutes. It was not a regular airport in Qaanaaq, so the landing was a gravel road next to the city. The pilot told us that we just had to fly low over the runway a couple of times to see if there was a rope stretched across the runway. There are sometimes children in the city who have done it for the sake of excitement. But the track is free and we land fast. The braking is also quite fast, because it is a gravel and sand track that the wheels sink into. But the pilot has tried the track before, so he has warned us about the conditions here.

We have agreed to take off again after 3 hours. So my colleague and I walk around town and "look at people" after which we move up to the local food house called "Polar Grill" where we get a few hot dogs and water. On our trip around the city, we meet many unusually drunk people. The explanation is that everyone has just received rationing marks for the liquor store, so there are many visits to shop for a quick brand. We are facing a pretty drunk lady who wants to sell a bag full of polar bear claws for $ 200 so she has some money for beer. They are beautiful, the claws, but we say no thanks, because that way we do not sentence a new bear to death, for there to be new claws for sale. Knowing that it probably had no effect that we said no thanks. But if everyone did, many senseless killings of these magnificent animals would be avoided. But that is probably a hopeless wish.

Fun and exciting to get to Qaanaaq. Could easily have been longer, but the pilot had to return to base, so we better get on board the plane again. The plane is ready to take off with a piece of gravel road ahead. Full power on the engine!

But instead of rolling away, the plane starts jumping and dancing. For, of course, the wheels have dug themselves into the sand and are firmly and thoroughly fixed. So the pilot takes a shovel out of the plane and starts digging the wheels free. He instructs me to give the plane full throttle while he's out wiggling the plane until it gets free and starts rolling away without him inside! He runs a bit next to the plane and then jumps on board and gets the plane in the air just before the gravel track ends in some big rocks. It was then very nice that he did not stumble as there was really fast speed on and we had been sitting there, with the pilot outside and full speed on. Well, you could have just turned off the engine, but it was a bit exciting anyway.

Up and away towards the base again. We flew a little along the coast first before heading inland again. Great views with endless expanses around us as far as the eye could see. I have flown many times before, but it is now something special to see Greenland from above, with the huge masses of ice and the coast with the many rocks and beautiful valleys in from the coast. The return flight took an hour and a half as we took a small detour to look around a bit. Really nice experience, I really wish many could be allowed to enjoy.

But now there is not always time for fun when there are tasks to be solved in the workshop and at the port. In fact, work takes up a lot of free time here. But………

Another unusual day at the base, was a day we sat in the "Dining Hall" and ate. Suddenly we were told. that the dining room would be closed soon as there were more than 300 unexpected guests on the way in about an hour. There was then something of an influx without warning – and so right here.

It turned out to be an Air France Boeing 747 that had taken off from Paris in the direction of Anchorage in Alaska, filled with tourists from Korea. There had been a bomb threat against the plane, with the message that the bomb would go off at a specific time if certain requirements were not met. There was just a small but that the terrorists who had made the threat apparently did not know that the Thule base existed. Otherwise, the threat was shamefully good enough because there were no civilian airports close enough to take such large planes. So the terrorists acted shamefully in a "good" faith.

So the Jumbo landed on the base, without the knowledge of the terrorists. Then the plane was emptied of passengers, who were driven into the Dininghall and elsewhere. The jumbo was placed on the bomb site behind the base, at a safe distance from the base area and shortly after a Golfstreamer plane landed from Søndre Strømfjord with Danish police on board, with specially trained bomb dogs that examined the Jumbo everywhere. Nothing was found and the plane was left at the bombing site.

Now the terrorists had set a specific time for the explosion, but nothing happened. And after waiting for another 2 hours, the passengers were taken to the plane, which took off for Anchorage, Alaska. And the silence descended again over Thule Airforce Base, where the Airpolic had crashed around with machine guns and looked very skewed at the many Koreans who drove around in buses and looked at selected places. I think Americans have a special suspicion gene that mistrusts anyone and everything that is not American. They forget late, the day the Thule base was "invaded" by hundreds of Koreans.

My curiosity begins to think about Søndre Strømfjord further south, so I hear a little about the possibilities. Maybe a bit silly, because the daily work here is very nice here, with really good colleagues and lovely friends in their spare time to share life with. But my old colleague, Axel, "The Cold Blacksmith", is already down there and has written to me that there is definitely a job for me there if I would like it. Axel will at least do what he can, because I can get there if I want to. And yes, why not?

I misplaced the idea for my bosses, but they are not much to let go of me. Actually m own nice to hear that you have not been completely impossible, with the work here in the workshop. But things are getting started, so in a few weeks the transfer would happen, with a US.Airforce plane. Fine!

But nature would be different, because on Monday, September 12, in the morning I get the message to call my mother, who tells me that father is dead, which means I have to make a few quick decisions and make a lots of deals with the company. Already on Thursday, 16 September, a SAS machine is going to Denmark, so I can quickly book a ticket for the trip home. Just as a lot of paperwork has to be done for the transfer to Søndre Strømfjord and I start packing my luggage, music system, TV, clothes and everything else I want to take with me to the south. Reached it all and I take the charter plane home to Denmark, while the company will take care of moving my things and contents, with US.Airforce to the base to the south.

I come home in time to say goodbye to Dad on the stretcher and to attend the funeral. There will also be a lot of things to do so Mom can sit in unaltered living in the future. Mother is of course very affected by the situation and gets stuck, but has the family close to her to help in everyday life if something should arise. I offer to terminate my employment in Greenland and stay at home, but I simply can not be allowed by Mother. She insists that I go back and take care of my work and after 4 weeks, I sit in the plane towards Søndre Strømfjord on the way up to my new job. New job is perhaps so much said as it is still Greenland Contractors and all vehicles and machinery for repair are still from US.Airforce.

Welcome here and I am moving into something resembling a normal residence, as opposed to the barracks in Thule. Twice as much space on the second floor with a view towards Kragefjeldet. Do not know the real name right now, but there are always many crows hovering there, so why not the Crow Mountain?

Kangerlussuaq was originally an American air base built in 1941 under the name "Blue West 8". However, as a result of technological development, the base lost its military significance and was transferred to the Greenland Home Rule Government in the 1990s. Today, Kangerlussuaq is the civilian airport and workplace for most of the approx. 500 inhabitants.

Kangerlussuaq is located at the bottom of the 160 kilometer long fjord of the same name, which aptly means "The long fjord" in Greenlandic. Just a few kilometers from Kangerlussuaq Airport, you can experience some of the area's 5,000 musk oxen, on a hike or on a rented mountain bike. Kangerlussuaq has a very stable climate with hot, dry summers and cold, clear winter days and nights, which not least offers fantastic Northern Lights if luck is with you. With over 300 days a year of clear skies, Kangerlussuaq is one of the places in the world most likely to see the Northern Lights. I've been lucky enough to experience the Northern Lights many times and it's just amazing every time it hangs like a heavy colorful garland across the night sky where it looks like you can reach for them, but it typically "hangs" 80 more 150 kilometers up under the night sky. I have been so lucky to have experienced the Northern Lights many times and am just fascinated every time. I just stand still and enjoy the sight to the fullest every time.

The Northern Lights – or Aurora Borealis, as it is called, are active all year round, but it is not visible in the summer in Greenland due to the midnight sun. It is often around midnight, it can be seen and here best in a dark clear night sky from October to early April. At that time, you can see the northern lights all over the country, but in southern Greenland the northern lights can already be experienced from the end of August.

The Inuit have always been a bit superstitious and the Northern Lights in the clear polar night have challenged the imagination. A famous legend tells that when the northern lights dance in the sky, it means that the dead are playing ball with a walrus skull. Today, some people believe that children are particularly intelligent when they are born in and therefore "designed" by the magic light of the Northern Lights.

Unlike Thule, there is always extra work in the workshop so the hours are often late before dawn. Fortunately, Saturday is usually "protected" for extra work, at least in the winter. So it's dawn at noon, so you can start a bit with the party, which is almost fixed every Saturday, with a nice dinner in the common room or nice dinner somewhere before we go to "The Caribou Club" which is a place where it is always full of lovely people, evenly distributed between people from the base and from the civilian side of the base, i.e. on the other side of the airport.

Often, I was invited to parties on the civilian side after the bottom had been laid in the club. It was often some rather animated festivities that ended with communal sleeping in a small room somewhere with 12-15 parka-clad base people on some foam rubber mattresses. But when the weather is right, I prefer to go the 1½ kilometers back to my own bed, which was preferable. Do not forget a festive evening where the party was over and I would definitely go home even though I had forgotten to put the cap on my parka after washing and my gloves were also at home. Stupid, stupider and dumbest! It was minus 54 degrees outside, but I went anyway and greeted both reindeer and old musk no. 16 who had entered the base area during the night. After only a short time, my ears started tingling in the cold and as I held up my hands to warm them, the same tingling quickly came to my fingertips. My cheeks and nose began to tingle and I had to rush to the workshop where I worked to get into the heat of the Arctic corridor, where the door is never locked. Here I got warmth in my fingers and face again, although it continued to tingle tremendously. Quite uncomfortable and the first sign of frostbite.

With several stops in other buildings, I finally got home to my own room. Incredibly stupid, to forget all about the hood on the parka and of course my gloves too. Think it happened because there were only minus 20 early in the evening and it was only the club that joked in my mind about tonight's excesses. But as so often before, the plans are changed by thirst and longing for fun and music, so here I was reminded to respect nature and that the cold should never be forgotten. It took several days before my ears and fingers were normal again and I was so much smarter now.

Christmas and New Year were celebrated in an "appropriate" way, both at home in the house with the roommates and later in "The Caribou Club", with music, dancing and and and …… There is not much snow now outside, but you get used to this. On the whole, I experienced almost no snow, but I did not miss it either.

All in all, things are pretty quiet here at the base and at work. Superintendent Eli is a quiet man of few words and the collaboration works well. The supervisor is Lars Jensen and he is also a sociable size who takes it all from above, so that everyday life slides painlessly instead of making things difficult as someone can. Crewchief is not usually here, but suddenly one day my old Supervisor, Erik Lisner, comes down from Thulebasen and is quickly named Crewchief, all right with me! So everything goes well and painlessly at work and in leisure time.

Working again, as at Thule together with Axel, callet "The Cold Blacksmith", to keep the heavy equipment such as snow clearing equipment and trucks in order and we also renovate the stone crusher for use in the summer months.

January, February and March go by without the big fluctuations, just work and keep free. Easy and simple. In late March, an idea was born in my head that I can use for a 1st of April joke. I grab some officiels US.Airforce paper for the purpose and author a document to initiate a halving of the cost of electricity at the base. The base needs to change from 110 volts down to 55 volts, to improve the economy of the base.

April 1, 1988

For this, everyone must pick up an "Adapter" in the REC center, which must be installed between the socket and the various electrical items that we now use at home and at work. I wander around March 31st late at night and put up a "Document" on all the bulletin boards and exit doors in the living quarters.

Actually I did not think it would have any particular effect, but I hear later that the next day, April 1, 1988, a lot of people come over to the REC Center to pick up their "Adapter". Of course, the REC Center knew nothing about any "Adapter", but I later heard that one of the employees there, who had also read the message, was quick and played with and sent people on in the "system". The joke was a little more comprehensive than I expected and believed. So now you know where the 1st of April joke came from if you were on Sondy back in 1988.

At the end of April, I was called up by Lisbeth, a close acquaintance in Copenhagen, who asked if I would like to buy her apartment in Hessensgade 48, on Amager. Sure, it was a super nice deal, so I agreed with Lisbeth to buy it when I got home on vacation for May.

I also contacted my old friend "PH", Peter Hansen, in early May, to hear if he had a working Harley in stock that could be registered for me when I get home on vacation. I was selling what I had when I traveled to Australia in '87, so I needed something to roll around on holiday. Peter tells me he has a Harley Sportster 1964 and he can register it for me quickly.

Mighty! Maybe not exactly a model I had imagined, but it's good enough for a little holiday driving. And Peter fixes papers and license plate so it's ready when I get home. For those who do not know, I can tell that Peter was a Harley importer at the time and also one of the co-founders of Harley-Davidson Club Denmark as previously told.

The 7 months in Greenland in a race was fine and now it must be really good with vacation. Back home, I quickly go down to Peter and pick up my Harley so there can be a little buzz in my hair. So in Spies and buy 2 weeks on Gran Canaria in Puerto Rico so I can get my body warmed up again. There will be 2 weeks of total relaxation and fun with my old friend Birger Vallys there.

Back home I get hold of Lisbeth and I buy my new home from her, so I now have a 2-bedroom on the 4th floor in 2300-S. Super nice that Lisbeth thought of me, so I have something to come back to when I stop in Greenland someday.

Mysteriously enough, there was a sweet young lady in the middle of it all. It's Lisbet's colleague Lisa from the airport, where they work in "Fly-Cleaningen" at SAS. Lisa is with us all the way through the shopping of the apartment and we celebrate it in a suitable way, with some food and drink in the evening, where we then go over to "Jensens Bodega" in Bremensgade, to celebrate the shopping until the wee hours. Just fine and I think when I suddenly found Lisa on my lap so we got close enough to share a few kisses. Hmmmums.

Well yes, I was actually quite polite to offer Lisa to stay overnight in my apartment so she did not have to go home at night. UHA, such an offer can be dangerous! You never know what might come out of such a thing.

Now, I did not think that anything special would definitely come out of such an overnight stay, even though I just thought Lisa was a nice step to get on the fork, in addition to a bargain. It was only a short acquaintance, but as the days went by, Lisa and I got even more days together. Among other things, Lisa and I drove to a Harley meeting in Jutland, which was Lisa's first step into the Harley world. Very cozy and after a good weekend, we drive home to Amager again. I have no furniture in Hessensgade, so I live with my mother in her house in the town of Hjortekær.

Since I have to go around and meet many old friends, I do not see Lisa that much, even though I wanted to be with her every day. But there was no reason to push. But see you a few times in my holiday and I also spend the last night before the plane goes back to Greenland again. Strange situation, because Lisa says "I love You" and I had a really hard time sneaking around the answer. I dare not just say what I mean, for I still have my "freedom" in mind and will not bind myself too quickly to another. It's fucking hard when the heart says yes and an old petrified idea says something else.

But up in the air with the SAS towards Søndre Strømfjord, I sit silently and think a lot and suddenly I get very annoyed that I did not say "I love you" to Lisa too. But when I got to the base, I quickly grabbed my pen and wrote a long letter to Lisa so she is in no doubt about what I mean. It gets very hot and many letters whiz back and forth during the summer and we often talk together through the payphone at the base, where I exchange and spend 1000.- kroner every time and Lisa gets a phone bill of colossal format.

The work goes through the summer at the port, with 70-80 working hours a week on average, so a little pay comes into my account as well. Aksel and I work to keep the landing craft sailing and various other vehicles rolling in the harbor. We separate and build an old SAS bus so that it can be a home on one of the landing craft, for the "Sømærketuren" that goes out through the fjord to paint the many sea marks there are. Aksel comes with the ride and I stay inside the base, completely voluntarily. Then I can constantly talk to Lisa on the phone as usual. There were several who shook their heads when I refused to join the trip. Maybe also a little silly, as it is a "once in a lifetime" trip I said no to.

It was my plan to stay at the base at least until New Year. But it's starting to pull at me to get home to Lisa again. So already as early as the beginning of July, I make the decision and hand in my notice of termination to the company because we have a 30-day notice period. The boss is trying to get me to take a few extra months, but no, I've made the decision. Ok, the company says, but says the door is always open if I could change my mind. So I have not made myself completely impossible here. Nice to know.

It's a bit annoying now because I'm starting to get a swelling below my left eye.. Went to the doctor, but here they will not do anything, but recommend me to get treatment when I come to Denmark. Ok, good and for that it's probably just a small abscess or similar. Instead, I get some penicillin pills I can take. Well enough, but the pills do not work at all, because the bulge is still growing and growing.

Continues in Danish 10